The Complete Guide to Agency Positioning

Want to grow your agency in 20212?

Limit your audience.

That’s right, “limit” – as in make it smaller.

Let me explain…

Over the past year, we’ve worked with over 500 agencies. They all had at least one of the following problems:

• Struggled to get new clients
• Struggled to get consistent results for clients
• Struggled to pull themselves out of operations

Each of these problems is a symptom of the same disease – weak positioning.

In this article, I’ll break down “positioning”, why its so critical and how you use this simple strategy to grow your agency in 2022.

Define “Positioning”?

Positioning = Uniquely qualifying your agency’s value in the market.

Some people call it selecting a niche, others call it specialization – I call it solving a specific problem, for a specific customer.

Why is “Positioning” so important?

A well-positioned agency enjoys less friction.

This only happens when you stop doing everything for everyone and focus on doing one thing, for one type of business.

Let’s unpack the benefits of positioning more…

#1 – Streamlines your operations

Solving a single problem for a single avatar makes service delivery a breeze.

You’re doing the same thing, over and over again.

This allows you to easily…

• Create a streamlined process to simpler execution
• Get better results for clients, as you’re removing the guesswork
• Constantly improve service quality and remove redundancies through process management

A lot of agencies struggle with building processes because every time they take on a client, they’re doing something different.

Without processes, your life will always be a dumpster fire. The starting point to process isn’t SOPs, it’s positioning.

#2 – Simplifies hiring

Most agencies struggle with hiring because they don’t know who to hire, for what role and when.

If your agency is positioned properly, with clearly defined processes, you have a clear picture of what roles are needed.

When we repositioned our agency (WEBRIS), we were able to reduce the number of internal roles from 5 to 2.

#3 – Easier to acquire customers

Let’s say your agency only partners with coffee shops to help them get more foot traffic in the door.

Your specific position alone will help you broker more sales conversations, but when that with a few case studies showcasing how you’ve helped other coffee shops grow, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel.

Moreover…

• It’s easier targeting your marketing campaigns
• You’ll establish a track record with similar companies (think Case Studies)
• You increase your edge over the competition when pitching and marketing

I mean, Facebook literally lets you target people who are in the coffee business.

So many people think selecting a position means a smaller market…it does, but it also let’s you easily stand out.

How to position your agency

If you’re still with me to this point, hopefully I’ve convinced why positioning is so important.

Now let’s talk about how to pick a position for your agency.

That process starts with understanding the different strategies available to you.

Within our coaching program for agencies, we offer 4 strategies to help select a position.

#1: Industry targeting

If you’re a smaller agency (less than $5m/ARR) this position is still very broad. It’s best you drill down further into customer details size, pain points, etc. This strategy has massive upside (market cap), but would be better for established agencies.

#2: Niche industry

This is where most agencies start – “the riches are in the niches”. Most folks get stuck thinking this is only local, small businesses. Think bigger – a “niche” also applies to digital businesses, like women’s shoe stores.

There are potential issues with market cap or price points. You can crush it with coffee shops early on, but they can only pay so much. It’s really difficult to grow past $5m servicing clients of that size. Eventually, you’ll need to pivot into a new space (we can help you with that).

#3: Specialized service offer

Your agency can also specialize based on your service capabilities, by creating a unique offer.

#4: Productized service offerings

A productized service runs on detailed, streamlined processes and solves a hyper specific problem. It runs like an assembly line or highly oiled machine, following the same process over and over for every client (NO deviation or custom work, ever).

BONUS – combining strategies

You don’t have to pick one, in fact, the best positions are the ones that combine multiple strategies.

• An agency that specializes in helping fitness brands that run on Magento
• An agency that helps info marketers with their SEO
• An agency that sets up remarketing ads for B2B companies

Those are all off the top of my head, but you get the picture – don’t be afraid to go hyper specific, especially if you’re doing less than $1m in revenue.

Want more?

Partner with us 1 on 1 to help your agency select the right position. We’ve developed a process that will help you zero in on what / who / how to position your agency for less friction and more clients.

A recent DM from one of our clients.

The world changed in 2020 – every single business on the planet was affected.

Business need help from agencies / consultants more than ever.

They just don’t need it how we’ve been selling it.

They have new, specific problems – we need to position ourselves as the solution.

We help can you do that. Book a time to talk to a growth advisor about how we can work 1 on 1 to grow your agency.